Now that a county can no longer have a cross as part of its official seal, it's clearly just a matter of time before cities (and counties) like "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula" (LA's full name) or San Diego, or San Francisco, or Santa Rosa, or San Luis Obispo, or San Simeon, are going to be forced by the ACLU to change to something more secular.

We might as well come up with some good candidates now. Maybe we could just formalize some of the already-existing nicknames, like LaLaLand, and Baghdad-By-The-Bay.

By the way, I don't really care whether or not the official seal of Los Angeles County has a cross in it, but I think that it says something about the ACLU that they think that this is one of the most important things that they can be doing. As long as they're going to waste their resources on things like this, they shouldn't be looking for any contributions from me. Maybe we need to start a new organization that actually takes civil liberties (including the right to bear arms) seriously.

[Update at 5:21 PM PDT]

Mike Rappaport points out that there may have been collusion with some members of the Board of Supervisors who wanted to remove it, but didn't want to risk the voters' wrath.

[Update late on Wednesday evening]

Lileks agrees with me, albeit (as usual) more eloquently:

Boil it down to this: a piece of paper with the city seal comes down the pneumatic tube. Winston Smith places masking tape over the crosses, picks up his speaking tube. “MemRec insert, city seal doubleplus ungood possible thoughtcrime godsign, new file city seal ungodsign postdate.”

And the crosses on the seal go down the memory hole.

What compels these people? How small are their lives that they worry about this?

Well, here's a start, though their focus is primarily economic.

Local ACLU leadership outside the DC-Boston Axis of Idiotarianism are often sympathetic to 2nd Amendment concerns, but such people never seem to adequately influence the national organization.

Wait until they get out to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

There will be wailing and much gnashing of teeth.

Rich

Maryland has a cross on the state flag, appropriately enough, since it was founded by and for catholics. I pity the fool who tries to get that cross off the flag. I'm all in favor of strict church/state separation, but trying to erase history is Orwellian.

Unfortunately, the link is broken at the moment. I ran across the story here.

I think organizations like the ACLU evolve to serve the needs of their managers rather than the hypothetical needs that spawned the creation of the organization in the first place.

The problem with organizations like the ACLU and NAACP is that if they are successful, they put themselves out of business. So they have to go around finding new and better ways to expand the need for their particular service. A real, for-profit, business who've long ago been successfully bought out in a takeover (hostile or friendly), with a subsequent reorganization and better and more effecient use of resources.

Sometimes non-profits merge. For example, the L5 Society merged with the Planetary Society. I don't know if it was worthwhile, but here in Sacramento, CA they still call themselves the L5 Society.

Now, that, Karl, made my jaw drop. The L5 Society and the Planetary Society had radically different viewpoints. According to www.l5news.org:

"The L5 News was published from September 1975 until April 1987, at which time the L5 Society merged with the National Space Institute to create the National Space Society."

Well, actually, L-5 and NSI had radically different viewpoints also, but in different ways. L-5 wanted to get large colonies in space soon, and NSI was basically a NASA cheering section. They merged to form the National Space Society, but it became clear not too long after that NSI had simply assimilated L-5. The hole left in the space movement by the disappearance of L-5 was eventually filled by organizations like the Space Frontier Foundation.

Sorry for shocking you, VR. My blaze of ignorance was a little uncalled for.